We’re working on a series of Mini-Courses for the coming months, but we need your help.
Will you tell us:
You can use our Safe Space on the left side of the Homepage to let us know. It’s completely anonymous (even we don’t know who posts there!).
Thank you for your help. We’ll keep you posted on FB about the courses as we get them scheduled!
Exactly one year and forty-four days ago today – thirteen months and thirteen days ago … four hundred and nine days ago – my “job” of nine years came to a close after our programs were acquired by our regional affiliate. To be honest, it was more than a “job.” It was a mission, a conviction, an endeavor into which my staff and I poured more time and energy and sweat and tears and laughs and life than we’ll ever be able to express or recapture.
In the months preceding our closure we had a lot of good-byes and final transactions to make with our partners. We found ourselves closing accounts and disposing of property. We discovered we had a lot to learn before we could determine what could go and what needed to be retained … and where that place of retention might be. Volunteers – saints, really – helped us do what we didn’t know how to do and to do what we couldn’t bring ourselves to do. And my My Job Sucks partner, Leslie, and I may well be eternally indebted to her mom and my youngest daughter for the countless hours they spent reviewing and helping us to make good decisions, distributing and disposing of “stuff,” cleaning out and packing up our offices, etc., etc., etc. … and both with five-year old boys in tow!).
So why am I telling you all this? Definitely, it’s not for sympathy (as all too many have been want to give us). Rather, it’s because it’s been quite a while since either Leslie or I have posted or shared anything related to our work dedicated to eradicating from the American vocabulary that three-word phrase with an exclamation point: My Job Sucks!. I could blame the past four hundred and nine days filled with job searching, temporary jobs, and financial challenges (and a bit of grieving too) for our lack of attending to MJS, but part of it’s been the question: “Does it suck more to be stuck in a sucky job or to be suckily stuck without a job?”
Today, though, the waiting is over and we’re back … and we want to ask YOU that question: “Does it suck more to be stuck in a sucky job or to be suckily stuck without a job?” And we want your help to answer it. Will you reply to this post with your thoughts and insights and/or head on over to our website at http://MyJobSucks.us/ and share your thoughts and insights on the Safe Space to Vent? We really appreciate your input as our new Eradication Campaign takes off.
Feel free to repost or share this with someone you know … and if you’ll check in with us on Wednesday, we’ll have another question for you – one that’ll help you in the weeks and months ahead.
We’ve talked about how to find a job. Now let’s talk about the job that’s perfect for you!
Maybe you’ve been thinking about it for a while. Maybe you’re dreading it…. Leslie and Kris have a few tips to help you get started….
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced he’ll be taking two months parental leave after their daughter is born. Parental Leave isn’t just for CEOs … or it shouldn’t be. Leslie and Kris have a few suggestions for how to make Parental Leave a reality.
You may not know it, but you may be stressing yourself out far too much. Today Leslie and Kris have a few suggestions for you!
Are You Juggling Too Much?
W
ell it’s Monday … again.
Have you ever thought about the impact Monday can have on your week? I got to thinking about it this weekend. Monday can set the tone. The “I don’t want to go back to work” can drag on to Tuesday and Wednesday and all the way until Friday when we’re glad another week has ended.
I remember working in a job where I began dreading Mondays on Saturday. Yes, on Saturdays. I’d spend Saturday morning washing clothes, choosing what outfits I’d wear the coming week (one less decision to make in the morning), and ironing what needed to be made more presentable. Before I knew it, Monday had already crept its way into my mind and began killing any possibility of enjoying the rest of the weekend, let alone the day. And then, as the real Monday unfolded I was unhappy that (a) I had to go back to work and (b) I hadn’t had much of a weekend.
So we can approach Monday with
Moodiness
Obstinance
Negativity
Dismay
Anger
Yielding
or with
Motivation
Optimism
Niceness
Discovery
Anticipation
Yesability
I’d suggest you choose carefully … or else it’s going to be a verrrrrrrrry long week!
I just needed to get away this week but I only have one week of vacation left and already have that on the calendar for the week after Thanksgiving (I always take that week off to decorate for Christmas … yes, it really does take a week!).
Anyway, my husband arranged to take some time down by the lake to work on a book he’s writing and said, “I wish you could come.” Except for a few calls and emails to keep up with – get caught – up on – I had no appointments on my calendar for this week. So I made sure that I can remotely listen to the office answering machine and that we have good cell coverage and reliable wi-fi; and I packed up my computer and some shorts and t-shirts (shhhhhh, don’t tell anybody I own shorts … the word is just starting to leak out about my one pair of jeans!).
Not every job allows you this kind of freedom, of course; but some of them do, particularly when you’re a trusted team member. It doesn’t hurt to ask. And if you’re a manager or supervisor, think about providing get-away-from-work days for your trusted staff members. Sure, they may play a little but think how much more work they can get done without the knocks on their door or taps on the cubicle wall or overheard conversations or any of those other interruptions that come when you work in an office. Think how much more work they’ll get done because they’re grateful for the gift of time out. Think how much more effective they’ll be because they can return calls while they sit in the sun or see ripples on the lake each time they glance up from their computer!
Worried that your employees will play than work or that you can’t afford anymore time out for mental health breaks. In once sense we have to ask why you have people you can’t trust on your staff anyhow. And can you really not afford to offer opportunities to your best and brightest staff that say to them, “Thank you. I trust you. We’re lucky to have as hard a worker as you are?”
Let us know if you’ve had success with Remote Work Days – how you did it / how you do it.
And we want to hear from those of you who’ve had opportunities to work remotely. What were the best parts?
And if you need to get away but can’t: we’ve got the safe space on our Homepage to vent if you need to.